Pohang tops Men’s first block
23rd November, Jakarta: Lee Dong Hee of Pohang topped the Men's Masters first block finals of the 21st Asian Intercity Bowling Championship from Oh Young Gi of Uiwang in second and David Sitorus of Jakarta third. Lee Dong Hee opened his campaign with a scorcher with 289 plus the 10 points for the win to take an early lead and a 45 pins margin. Despite a disasterous 165 in the second, the Korean continued to lead but saw his margin reduced to 14 pins from Singapore's Benjamin Lim.
The leader recovered to post 221 and 225 to maintain his lead with 28 pins at the halfway mark while Jakarta's David Sitorus made his challenge to take up second spot. Sitorus continued to make headway to snatch the lead after six games with Lee trailing by 13 pins.
While the Indonesian ran out of steam in the last two games, Lee took advantage of it to reclaim pole position and ending the first block of 8 games with a total of 1796 and 5 wins. Uiwang's Oh Young Gi stormed home to snatch second with 1756, just 10 pins adrift.
Brief leader, Sitorus settled for third spot on a total of 1724 winning 4 matches, same as second-place Oh. Last year's masters champion also made a late charge to take up fourth with 1757 with Benjamin finishing fifth on 1752.
"My coach told to concentrate on the finals and not to get distracted so that's probably why I bowled better today," said the lanky Benjamin. "The lane conditions changed quite fast and I had to contnuously make changes to my line.
With less than 40 pins separating the top 5, the coveted Masters champion crown is anybody's race. The men will continue their second block tomorrow while the women will commence their first block later today.
Detailed scores: Men's 1stBlk Masters
Photos by Terence Yaw.